‘There’s a question of authenticity when Asians play non-Asian roles’
JHUTTI, WHO PORTRAYS AN ARISTOCRATIC GOVERNOR ON STAGE, SAYS IT’S AN ONGOING BATTLE
ASIAN actors’ representation in nonAsian roles is still an evolving issue and is “an ongoing conversation”, feels actor Ronny Jhutti, who said it is indeed important for actors to break free from the stereotype mould but what is also crucial is being “authentically truthful”.
Jhutti was recently seen in Rose Theatre’s new production of The Caucasian Chalk Circle – an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s famous play that came to stage after a gap of 25 years.
Speaking to Eastern Eye, the 49-yearold actor of Indian origin stated that the aspect of representation of artists across ethnicities is a multi-layered one.
“It is an interesting conversation to have now. I think it is still important, based on sort of your skills – what you do – but it is also now getting trickier.
“There is also the other side – a sort of question of authenticity at times”. So, if, for instance, I could personify a particular accent, and maybe even learn elements of a language, or completely learn a new one, I could effectively play that. But sometimes, this question of authenticity might emerge. If they are not, by hereditary, from that part of the world about which the story is, then we are doing a disservice. But it’s an ongoing conversation,” he said.
Jhutti is playing multiple roles in the play, prominent among them is of an aristocratic governor. One of Bertolt Brecht’s most celebrated works, The Caucasian Chalk Circle is a tale of a servant girl who rescues a baby of a wealthy affluential couple during a revolution and eventually becomes a better mother than the baby’s wealthy biological one who abandoned her to save herself.
The play came to stage after 25 years yet it managed to retain its flavour since, as in Jhutti’s words, director Christopher Hayden has an “excellent stab at it” in this playful and music-infused production.
“Hayden, who’s the artistic director of the theatre and the show, is very politically minded and, and I think a lot of that connected with him, in terms of the archetypes within the show, and what stories are being told, and how a lot of that still resonates, positively or negatively, with the human condition and with the world that we live in today,” Jhutti said.
Though there was “no date stamp” in the adopted version, the play was set in modern context in the fictitious city of Garcinia. It was “not a scene-to-scene copy” of Brecht’s tale and is rather adopted, Jhutti said, adding that apart from infusing music, the play also had a very intriguing start.
“The play starts off in a sort of real situation. The adapted play is effectively a play within the play. The people that you meet at the start of the play get involved in the performance of the presentation,” he said.
Without giving away the plot details, Jhutti stated that the initial few scenes are set in some sort of detention centre, where a bunch of strangers – “honed together” as refugees – get entertained by a group. The idea was to create a play within the play situation. “Immigration is certainly a part of the modern adaptation that sets up the presentation of The Caucasian Chalk Circle. A lot of those elements come through the telling of the story by this group of strangers.”
In this adapted version of Brecht’s parable about motherhood and justice, the governor is beheaded in a coup and his wife flees, remembering her fancy clothes but forgetting her infant son.
“The play’s focus is still a maid servant, who is status wise at a lowly position in a very aristocratic house of the governor and his wife, who in turn are disposed through a coup. The governor is beheaded and the governor’s wife has to flee for her own safety,” Jhutti said.
Governor’s maid Grusha is left to take care of the baby and, in an perilous journey, tries to find refuge in a landscape ravaged by war. She takes it on her own to protect the baby who is being hunted because of his connection to the disposed aristocracy by the newly formed revolution. “She goes on traumatic journey, endangering her life immensely, to safely protect this child and arrive at a place where she can she can live a safe life.
“There is another element of the tale – another lowly character who ends up being appointed as a judge. And he ends up sort of subverting the rule of law – of favouring those who have more money and disposing those who don’t. He has a wonderful journey too. He then transpires to bring those two central characters together, where he conducts a test of the The Caucasian Chalk Circle, to prove the rightful mother to this child between these two women – the maid servant and the governor’s wife. So, the stories then sort of eclipse and culminate together.”
Grusha is played by renowned actress Carrie Hope Fletcher, a leading star of the British stage. She has starred in West End productions of Les Miserables, Heathers the Musical and, most recently, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cindrella.
Actor Jonathan Slinger plays the judge Azdak, a carnivalesque apparition, who through becoming a judge by accident, reveals the underlying hypocrisies of his war-torn society. Jhutti plays the role of the governor and is also a part of ensemble, thus playing several characters. “I’m one of the most fortunate actors who gets to sort of expand themselves through several characters. I have two particular characters – one of them is a refugee at the start and later a quite troubled and evil character as the play moves on,” he said.
The narrative is set across five episodes that are completely divorced from one another, highlighting the fragmented nature of the situation the refugees find themselves in. The cast made the show work, donning many hats with seamless changes from one character to the next
A special mention should be made of their dialect shifts as well. Putting this piece together was a mammoth task which required months of workshops, voice modulations, and rehearsals.
“We did a lot of contextual work, where we created a past, future as well as the present. We worked it through accents, something we practised and practised, learning lines of dialogue, and then all of those things came together in some way,” the actor said, adding rehearsals help to figure out”, where you can try more things and decide what to discard”.
Being a musical play, Jhutti was a bit hesitant at the start but was put at ease by Hayden and by Michael Henry,
“It’s not I have not done musicals before. I have done a bit of singing within a show, or a bit of singing on-screen, which is very different. But this play had a succession of musical interludes that are driving the story, through the lyricism. So that was really exciting.
“It’s not my forté but it was a kind of excitingly frightening expedition for an actor to take. But we had Michael with us, so we would spend every afternoon over rehearsal, just working on the songs, and those elements. I felt very supported and comfortable even though music musical training is not in my background.”
Coming back to the topic of Asian actors playing non-Asian roles, Jhutti felt the issue goes much more beyond to gender and age as well. “It is still a journey, for a better expression, it is a battle that’s going on – the split between male and female. Age is another one that plays in.
“However, I don’t think there has to be a south Asian role only for a south Asian actor. Opening such constraints gives a lot more expansive sort of development to an actor as a performer. But yes, there is this dichotomy that exists,” he said.